IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/era/wpaper/dp-2024-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional Amenities, Services Offshoring, and Skilled Employment in the Republic of Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Ju Hyun PYUN

    (Korea University Business School)

Abstract

This study empirically examines the effect of services offshoring and regional amenities on the composition of skilled employment for services firms. Analysing Korean firm-level data spanning from 2006 to 2019, we find that services offshoring, characterised by the import of services intermediate inputs, correlates with an increase in the proportion of skilled workers within firms. Additionally, the effects of this shift are nuanced based on different skill levels: services offshoring leads to an increase in the share of permanent headquarters workers to total workers. However, it does not affect the share of high-end skilled workers, such as headquarters’ share of management and research and development (R&D) workers. Moreover, regional amenities promote the positive effect of services offshoring on permanent headquarters workers’ shares. Lastly, the positive effect of offshoring on demand for highend skilled workers in headquarters is significantly greater for firms with higher R&D intensity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ju Hyun PYUN, 2024. "Regional Amenities, Services Offshoring, and Skilled Employment in the Republic of Korea," Working Papers DP-2024-01, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    • Handle: RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2024-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.eria.org/uploads/Regional-Amenities-Services-Offshoring-and-Skilled-Employment-in-the-Republic-of-Korea.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Florida, 2002. "Bohemia and economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 55-71, January.
    2. Ingo Geishecker & Holger Görg, 2013. "Services offshoring and wages: evidence from micro data," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 65(1), pages 124-146, January.
    3. Mary Amiti & Shang-Jin Wei, 2005. "Fear of service outsourcing: is it justified? [‘Location of vertically linked industries: agglomeration versus comparative advantage’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 20(42), pages 308-347.
    4. Rosario Crinò, 2012. "Service Offshoring and the Skill Composition of Labour Demand," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(1), pages 20-57, February.
    5. Tanja Buch & Silke Hamann & Annekatrin Niebuhr & Anja Rossen, 2014. "What Makes Cities Attractive? The Determinants of Urban Labour Migration in Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(9), pages 1960-1978, July.
    6. Liu, Runjuan & Trefler, Daniel, 2019. "A sorted tale of globalization: White collar jobs and the rise of service offshoring," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 105-122.
    7. Rosario Crinò, 2010. "Service Offshoring and White-Collar Employment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(2), pages 595-632.
    8. repec:oup:ecpoli:v:20:y:2005:i:42:p:308-347 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. W. Mark Brown & Darren M. Scott, 2012. "Human Capital Location Choice: Accounting For Amenities And Thick Labor Markets," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 787-808, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Ariu & Katariina Nilsson Hakkala & J. Bradford Jensen & Saara Tamminen, 2019. "Service Imports, Workforce Composition, and Firm Performance: Evidence from Finnish Microdata," NBER Working Papers 26355, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Liu, Runjuan & Trefler, Daniel, 2019. "A sorted tale of globalization: White collar jobs and the rise of service offshoring," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 105-122.
    3. Carmine Ornaghi & Ilke Van Beveren & Stijn Vanormelingen, 2021. "The impact of service and goods offshoring on employment: Firm‐level evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 677-711, May.
    4. Eppinger, Peter S., 2019. "Service offshoring and firm employment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 209-228.
    5. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    6. Rosario Crinò, 2010. "Service Offshoring and White-Collar Employment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(2), pages 595-632.
    7. Crinò, Rosario, 2010. "Employment effects of service offshoring: Evidence from matched firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 253-256, May.
    8. Hyun-kyung Lee & Hong-bae Kim, 2019. "Regional preferences for the living environment and mobility of researchers and general workers: the case of Korea," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 62(1), pages 169-186, February.
    9. Sotiris Blanas, 2017. "Offshoring and the Age-Skill Composition of Labour Demand," Working Papers 209919378, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    10. Kim, Sung-min & Hwang, Jin-tae, 2016. "Offshoring, wages, and heterogeneity," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 65-72.
    11. Martín Tobal, 2013. "An Offshoring Setup," Documentos de Investigación - Research Papers 11, CEMLA.
    12. Daniel CHIQUIAR & Martín TOBAL & Renato YSLAS, 2019. "Measuring and understanding trade in service tasks," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(1), pages 169-190, March.
    13. Giuseppe Bognetti & Michele Santoni, 2010. "Can domestic unions gain from offshoring?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 51-67, May.
    14. David Hummels & Jakob R. Munch & Chong Xiang, 2018. "Offshoring and Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 981-1028, September.
    15. Robert Lehmann & Wolfgang Nagl, 2019. "Explaining spatial patterns of foreign employment in Germany," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(7), pages 991-1003, July.
    16. Nicola Gagliardi & Benoît Mahy & François Rycx, 2020. "Trade, GVCs, and wage inequality: Theoretical and empirical insights," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 115-134.
    17. Bart Hertveldt & Bernhard Michel, 2013. "Offshoring and the Skill Structure of Labour Demand in Belgium," De Economist, Springer, vol. 161(4), pages 399-420, December.
    18. Omar Bamieh & Francesco Bripi & Matteo Fiorini, 2022. "Services trade and labor market outcomes: Evidence from Italian firms," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 673-701, August.
    19. Blanchard, Emily & Willmann, Gerald, 2016. "Trade, education, and the shrinking middle class," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 263-278.
    20. Jan Hogrefe & Jens Wrona, 2015. "Trade, tasks and training: The effect of offshoring on individual skill upgrading," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(4), pages 1537-1560, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Services firms; Entry; Productivity; Korean firm-level data; Regional amenities; Industry heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2024-01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ranti Amelia (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eriadid.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.